Catholics are not always very good at understanding artistic temperament. There is no great mystery as to why. We value reverence, restraint, obedience, tradition, proportion and clarity. At our best, we understand beauty better than anyone – but often artists express themselves in ways which can seem excessive, vain, provocative, morally compromised, too drawn to the grotesque, or simply unwilling to say things in what we would consider an appropriate tone.
This is not a small problem, because Catholics are right to know that art is not morally neutral. Bad art does not merely fail aesthetically; it can deform the imagination. There is such a thing as corrupting art, and much of what is defended under the banner of artistic courage is little more than adolescent provocation. The Catholic instinct to be cautious is therefore not without merit. But it can be a bit puritanical. It can mistake ugliness of subject for ugliness of vision, or assume that art which shocks the pious must therefore be hostile to the sacred.
